Woven wood blinds have recently grown in popularity. Such blinds contain strips or sticks of wood or faux wood or lengths of grass or grasses laid side by side and woven together to form a panel. The panel of woven wood or grass extends from a board or headrail and may be raised or lowered by a lift mechanism. Typically the lift mechanism is comprised of a set of cords that pass through a cord lock. In a roll-up shade, each cord runs from the headrail down the one side of the panel and up the other side. In a roman shade, the lift cords run behind the panel from a point near the bottom of the shade to and through the cord lock. Examples of such blinds are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,353,856, 6,860,312 and U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2007/0175783 and 2007/0175782. The phrase “woven wood blinds” is often used to encompass blinds made from strips or sticks of wood or faux wood woven into a panel as well as blinds made from lengths of grass and is used that way herein.
Woven wood blinds are sold in stock sizes by retailers, such as big-box retailers. If a customer wishes to cover a window that has a dimension that differs from the dimension of a stock size blind then he or she must have the woven wood blind custom-made. Such custom sized blinds are often expensive. Typically the process used to make a custom blind involves laying a woven wood panel on a work table and trimming the panel to the desired size using a knife or scissors.
There are other types of window coverings including Venetian blinds, vertical blinds, pleated shades and cellular shades that are also sold in stock sizes. Many retailers have installed machines in retail locations which can be used by a sales associate to cut-down stock size blinds to fit a customer's window. These machines use cutting dies, straight blades or circular blades to cut the blinds. Examples of cutting machines that may cut stock sized blinds are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,799,557, 5,816,126, 5,927,172, 6,178,857, 6,334,379, 6,412,381, 6,427,571, 6,761,099, 6,945,152 and 7,024,977 and U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2008/0087152, 2007/0000363, 2006/0156882 and 2002/0020506.
The machines that have been used to cut down Venetian blinds, vertical blinds, pleated shades and cellular shades are difficult or impossible to use for cutting down woven wood blinds. These blinds cannot be cut with cutting dies. Straight blades or circular blades may not make even cuts or may crack or splinter the blind if the woven wood blind is not securely held. Although clamps have been used to secure other types of blinds in a cut-down machine, clamps are difficult to use on woven wood shades. Woven wood blinds are made from sticks or slats that vary in diameter over the length of the shade and from one woven wood shade to another woven wood shade. Therefore, the height of the stack of one folded or wrapped woven wood blind may be greater or less than the height of another woven wood blind. Additionally, the difference in stick or slat diameter causes some woven wood blinds to compress differently than other woven wood blinds. For these reasons, woven wood shades are difficult to clamp securely and can be easily damaged when clamped. If the middle of a woven wood blind is clamped, the ends of the blind may bulge out. If too much pressure is exerted the wood strips, wood sticks or lengths of glass may split or splinter.
The art has proposed to overcome these problems by tightly wrapping the woven wood blind and then using a circular blade to cut the blind as disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2007/0175783 and 2007/0175782. However, this method of cutting woven wood blinds has generally not been adopted by retailers or fabricators of woven wood or woven grass blinds. One problem with wrapped blinds is that they can still flex or change shape during the cutting process which results in an uneven cut.
U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2007/0175783 and 2007/0175782 teach the use of spacer material, such as cardboard, to help alleviate such movement. But the use of spacer material has not solved the problem. Cut edges may be rough or uneven.
Consequently, there is a need for a machine that can cut-down stock sizes of woven wood blinds without cracking or splintering the woven wood panel. The blind must not move during the cutting process and every cut must be accurate. Furthermore, the machine should be capable of use in a retail; store by a sales associate without having received more than an hour of training.